This supermassive black hole is at the center of one of the smallest galaxies in the universe

Astronomers, using new imagery from the Hubble space telescope, have found a supermassive black hole at the center of one of the universe’s smallest known dwarf galaxies, calling into question some of our theories about how the universe was formed. The black hole at the center of the dwarf galaxy is about four times larger than the black hole that our own Milky Way revolves around — but amazingly, the dwarf galaxy is five hundred times smaller than the Milky Way, with a diameter of just 300 light years. “We don’t know of any other way you could make a black hole so big in an object this small,” says Anil Seth, lead author of the new research.

Dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1 consists of about 140 million stars, crammed into a space that’s just 300 light years across. Our own Milky Way, by comparison, is over 100,000 light years across and consists of about 200 billion stars. According to NASA, if you looked up at the night sky from within the dwarf galaxy you would see at least 1 million stars. Here on Earth, you can see just a few thousand. The image above (view larger) gives you some idea of what the night sky might look like, if we had a telescope on the surface of a planet in the dwarf galaxy. (Sadly it’s an artist’s rendering — the galaxy is 50 million light years distant, and thus too far away for Hubble to capture such details.)

While M60-UCD1 is undeniably very small, it isn’t its diminutive size that makes it notable — it’s the frickin’ huge black hole in the middle of it that has astronomers scratching their heads. It’s not unusual for a galaxy to have a supermassive black hole at the center of it — we think most galaxies have such a black hole — but we didn’t think it was possible for a dwarf galaxy to harbor a supermassive black hole. The black hole at the center of the Milky Way has a mass of around four million Suns, or about 0.01% of the galaxy’s entire mass. The M60-UCD1 black hole has the mass of 21 million Suns, or about 15% of the galaxy’s total mass. “That is pretty amazing, given that the Milky Way is 500 times larger and more than 1,000 times heavier than the dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1,” Seth says.

This is what the Milky Way looks like to an infrared telescope. Sadly, your human eyes can’t see anywhere near as many stars.

The only plausible explanation at the moment is that the dwarf galaxy used to be a full-fat galaxy with about 10 billion stars — but then it collided with another galaxy, M60, which pulled away most of its stars. M60 has its own, ginormous supermassive black hole with a mass of around 4.5 billion Suns. Long-term, astronomers believe that M60 and M60-UCD1 may eventually merge — and when that happens, the black holes will also merge. I’m not entirely sure what happens when two supermassive black holes merge, nor what such a monstrosity would be called, but it’s probably spectacular.

Well, yes, but that’s not galactic. It’s a universal truth.
Just ask Commander Sharpton or High Priestess Pelosi back at Federation Hdqtrs.

Innocent Ugwu

That is God in action!!! Amazing. Stupid scientists have more questions than answers, yet they refuse to acknowledge the existence of God.

David Hixon

I don’t know therefore God…. That dog just doesn’t hunt.

TorqueTrapshut

One who has no questions has nothing to learn. If God is the answer of all your questions, God must be disappointed in you for you have quit searching. It’s ok for you to be ignorant because we have scientists who will do the work for you. You’re welcome!

MrBear

Its similar to the parable of the talent: the master will be displeased when we do not use our brains, if we only bury our heads in the past and do not change. I think “God” INTENDS for us to evolve and learn to survive in harmony with the planet and its life forms. The Hubble is the best answer, If we only ask it the best questions…

ME

Now this is just stupid. I may or may not believe in a God or evolution but blindly accepting whatever you learn be it from a scientist, teacher, or book without doing research and figuring out what you believe and why you believe it is just stupid. I have more respect for the person who came to the conclusion to believe in God after looking at all theories, hypothesis, and evidence than the person who just ignorantly and blindly accepts whatever a scientist said. And the same goes for the person who blindly accepts a book and not looking on the other side.

spoffle

Sadly, it seems few people are like this.

TorqueTrapshut

You Mr. Me, are a hypocrite sticking out like a sore thumb. I hope you can see the duality in your post.

Apparent Real

Did you look into the evidence for Islam, Hinduism, and all those other religions too?

Innocent Ugwu

What you said is exactly what the Bible admonishes us to do: Prove all things and hold fast that wgich is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Mae Holland

Personally I rather go with the people who are researching and asking questions. I’ve got to wonder about the folks who cling to some old manuscript written by a bunch of old guys with beards. This manuscript is ambiguous, conflicting and I suspect the old guys who wrote it were just playing a shell game on their stupid flocks.

Scientists are a lot smarter that all you God folks arguing about how many angels can sit on the head of a pin.

janheckman

What makes you think that believing in God drives one to no-longer search for truths about the Physical? After all: The Physical is God’s wonderful gift to his children, so why not discover it’s majesty?

Innocent Ugwu

They’re ignorant of what it means to believe in God.

Techutante

“Ignorant” and “Believe” do not belong in the same sentence, sorry. You can’t “Be Ignorant” about things that you have to “Believe in”. They just exist, or they don’t. If they do exist, then there is evidence which allows you to form a theory, which may, if additional evidence presents itself, have to be reformed to acknowledge the facts. If they do not exist, nobody can be ignorant about them/it/he, because there is nothing to know. You merely circle the wagons around your make believe and tell everyone they don’t know it’s special because they can’t see the magic in your own mind. E.G. You’re crazy and defensive about being in denial.

Innocent Ugwu

Hahahahaha, do you know how many assumptions were made before the periodic table became what we know today? Smart one! They made assumptions about what they didn’t know based on what they knew.
If christians make such assumptions, you’ll scream. That’s why you believe in evolution even though the proponents tell you it took millions of years to happen and might take another millions of years to prove; wow, that’s smart, right.
But you refuse to believe Christianity with all the historical evidence aside from the Bible.

That’s what I call ignorance incorporated.

Techutante

The difference between your two examples underlies your blindness. They figured out the periodic table of elements (which isn’t really a thing, more of a way to put things on a chart so they are easily read), and are still adding to it to this day. When evidence is put forth and multiple-times verified, it is accepted into the current theory. Furthermore, evolution is basically proven science, only deniers like yourself take issue with it, and it wasn’t even in my comment, so it just goes to show how much you hate any science that proves your multiple thousand year old fairy tale to be wrong.

To say “They made assumptions about what they didn’t know based on what they knew” you are admitting that they knew something. That’s called observation. If I look at your plate, and there is steak on it, I assume that you ordered steak for dinner. If you did not order steak for dinner, then it was improperly delivered to you, or you just accepted whatever was placed in front of you. These would be alternate theories. All of them could be sound, but when someone chimes in with evidence (The server at the restaurant claims you ordered steak, they wrote that on the ticket, and you are being charged for steak, therefore the odds are vanishingly small that you didn’t order it, or that you were an inactive party in the transaction.) that is verified by independent sources which are the commonly used methods for ordering or processing such steak, then we have narrowed it down to 1 theory, which is provable given the evidence, but could still be considered wrong if extenuating circumstances are discovered. Say, someone bribed the server to write down that you ordered steak, when you had in fact ordered chicken. If evidence of that theory can be found, than the original theory becomes invalid. This is called the scientific method. Also investigative research, crime solving, etc are all handled the same way. So if you disbelieve the scientific process, you’re going to have a hard time in court when you want to defend yourself from false charges, because you’ll just want to believe in them right?

Vs. anything to do with religion which has virtually zero evidence to show anything except that what was written down was somewhat topical to the time period of it’s writing. This is also true of Greek literature, so you also believe in Zeus and Giants and Krackens and Demi-Gods that are the sons of gods and horses?

Even your terminology, “you refuse to believe in Christianity…” Which Christianity do you refer to? The Main Branch that was invented by the Romans to passify the Jews at the turn of the ADs? The million offshoots since then? Who has the TRUE story? And why limit it to believing in Christiantiy, which isn’t actually a religion btw, that’s just a blanket term for anyone who vaguely believes in Christ, for whom there is little or zero historical context. Roman Catholicism perhaps is what you’re talking about? The religion responsible for more deaths than all the world wars combined, through the ages? That’s the one we should believe has the right version of the fairy tale?

So cite me one critical paper that posits the existence of god based upon any evidence you care to support, aside from Belief, which is about as valid as the statement that Fox News is “Fair and Balanced”. Or your definition of ignorance, With or without corporate sponsorship?

Innocent Ugwu

All your rigmarole didn’t prove anything.
The periodic table is chart but look at how it’s organized: elements with certain atomic numbers were first discovered, then other elements with atomic numbers not close to the previous ones, and they assumed that there has to be other atoms in between the former and the latter, so to say.
Now, it took years upon years before the in between elements were discovered and when they did, the properties predicted of them were accurate so to say.
Meanwhile, no one crucified them while waiting to discover those elements.

The evidences of God of the christians is everywhere around you. You just chose to be ignorant of them; if you believe in evolution, why don’t you believe there’s God through the archeological discoveries?

Evolution, we’re made to believe, is an incremental process. When you look around you, do you see a creature in between us humans and the other we evolved from? The answer is no, and evolutionists hide behind time to deceive people. Yet, you ignore all the evidence about God around you to believe in it.

As for what christian I’m talking about, a christian is one who does what Christ says that he or she should do. Without wasting time, all those that do not observe the Sabbath are not Christians, likewise those, like some Jews, that observe the Sabbath but don’t believe in Christ as the Son of God.

People argue about what they don’t know and that’s ignorance. If You have not read the Bible and you want to argue about God and Christianity, where do you get the facts for your position?

I’ve to go back to work. We can go further with this later.

Techutante

See, your blindness lets you say things and immediately not notice that they are supporting my side and not yours. The whole bit at the start of your reply, that whole first paragraph, that’s exactly how science works yes. You see holes in your theory, you theorize what might fill those holes, then you find it. Neat and tidy. Now apply that to religion. Tell me, where has even a single hole been filled in? Historical evidence of religious activity is not historical proof of god, so I don’t see where you’re going with that?

“Meanwhile, no one crucified them while waiting to discover those elements.” Um, yeah you might want to go back and look at what they did to people during the crusades, the witch trials, and the inquisition. Or what happened to Galileo.

“The evidences of God of the christians is everywhere around you. You just chose to be ignorant of them; if you believe in evolution, why don’t you believe there’s God through the archeological discoveries?” Again, “God of the Christians” is a misnomer, as there are no such thing as christians any more than there is a physical thing called the table of elements. There are people, who relate to various Christ acknowledging or worshiping religions/cults, and those people are lumped together sometimes into tables of groups with various different properties, which may vary widely or actually be totally and completely unrelated, except that you have grouped them together. Did you know that Mormons refer to themselves as Christians?

Furthermore, again, cite me one reference of archaeology directly supporting the existence of God, gods, or any god? We can look at the ancient Myans and see that they invented Soccer a long time ago, does that mean that we should base a religion on it because it’s ‘really old’? You should take some time perusing any website that has a list of Logical Fallacies.

“Evolution, we’re made to believe, is an incremental process. When you look around you, do you see a creature in between us humans and the other we evolved from? The answer is no, and evolutionists hide behind
time to deceive people. Yet, you ignore all the evidence about God around you to believe in it.” For someone who throws around the word ignorance as often as you do, you sure don’t bother to research anything do you? I don’t know if you have heard of epigenetics, but basically it’s the study of how our genes change EVERY SINGLE GENERATION. There is no creature that was before man, there is only man, as he was before he developed a couple new things in each successive generation. And in fact, we have archaeological remains from something along the lines of 10-20 places along the way where you might say a species that exhibited such traits was not a modern man, but did eventually evolve into what we are today, or didn’t and were lost forever as a sister species. The whole process is super easy to demonstrate. If you’ve ever planted a flower you know that they grow differently based on the conditions you plant them in, and that if they grow in your garden long enough, they are essentially their own species as they have adopted on a cellular level to the nutrition and light and care that you provide them. Nature adapts to it’s conditions, and if an adaption is beneficial in the long run, it is adopted as an evolutionary benefit, and passed on to offspring.

As for you, “you haven’t read it, how can you know what you’re talking about” argument, let me break down how you’re wrong there with bullet points.

1. I went to a Roman Catholic (not generic christian) school. We studied every page of the book, the history of the book, the history of the church, the general history of religion, and actually some of other religions because it was a pretty progressive school, for a church school.

2. The Book that you and most people have read has been proven, time and time again, to be basically horribly inaccurate translations of the “originals” such as they are. So I doubt that you have even read the book you keep referencing as the source of all you need to know.

3. You haven’t actually read anything about how evolution, science, scientific theory, debating logic, logical thinking, or apparently debate work, and only reply based upon imaginary belief. That is the epitome of ignorance.

Innocent Ugwu

That first bullet says it all about you: Roman Catholic. You didn’t study every page of the Bible. At best, you read it and that’s different from studying it. If you had studied it, you shouldn’t be saying what you’re saying today. The Bible is full of prophecies that were fulfilled and still being fulfilled as we’re talking. Who on earth could predict what will happen hundreds of years in advance with razor edge accuracy as is in the Bible if not God? If you really studied the Bible as you claimed, tell me why the Catholic don’t keep the Sabbath; tell me why their priests don’t marry even though the Bible which they read states that a Bishop should be a husband of one wife; tell why they believe that Christ was crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday even though that Christ himself that He’ll be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, just like Jonah; How in the world could they count three days and three nights from Friday evening when Jesus was buried to Sunday(before day break) when He resurrected? why do they believe in the rapture even though Christ tells us that He’s coming back to this earth to rule as King of kings and Lord or lords? why do they believe that Christians will go the heaven when numerous scripture tells us that we’ll reign on this earth and not in heaven. why do they celebrate Christmas when they know Christ wasn’t born on December 25? why do they pray through Mary even though Christ says we should ask anything using His name?

Since you studied every page of the Bible, you should have answers to these questions.

Now, coming back to evolution. You logic about flower is just ridiculous. If I plant two oranges in my orchard and treat them differently, both will still grow to be produce orange fruit. One might be bigger than the other as a result of different conditions but their genetic makeup will still be the same. The fact that some of us are white and others black, some tall and others short doesn’t mean evolution.

Now, flowering plants and bees depend on each other for survival, which of them came into existence before the other?

If you hatch two chickens, male and female, and allow them to grow in isolation away from others, at maturity, they’ll mate (without being taught to) and the female will lay eggs. Then she will sit to cover the eggs just long enough to incubate them, and then the chicks break out. How can evolution explain such instinct as this?

Why have the fastest and biggest animals not survived as humans have, if survival of the fittest makes any sense. Man is small and slow compared to a host of other creatures but man dominates them all, evolutionist tell me how.

All the physical laws that man has discovered so far hasn’t changed. The duration of day and night hasn’t changed since time immemorial; the law of gravity hasn’t changed; etc, etc. That is why scientists and engineers are able to design the things we use because these laws are stable. Who made those laws? Why hasn’t they evolved into something else, say, no gravity so we can all fly like birds? God put those laws in place.

Those people who wrote the Bible, how did they know that the earth is generally round? It took scientists thousands of years to catch up with that.

The Bible tells me that fat is not good for us to eat. When did scientists find that out.

The Bible tells me that A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

When did the doctors find this out? Just recently.

All the things that the Bible tells us not to eat are just being discovered by scientists to be harmful to us.

And you want me to believe evolution. No way!!

You know, as an engineer, what I discover in my practice and research is the overwhelming evidence that there has to be a Creator, and not chance, that put all these intricate structures around me in place to function the way they do. That Creator is God.

And here’s one for you to think about; I know you believe that fire will burn you if you mess with it; now, if a child, as ignorant as he is comes around and puts his finger in the fire, what do you think will happen. It will burn him regardless of his ignorance or belief. Why? Because there’s a law that says so. This law doesn’t care if one is ignorant of it or not, if one believes in it or not; that’s why people die every day because they disobey these laws, and the laws will always take effect.

Whether you believe there’s God or not, what He’s has purposed to happen will still happen just like the fire. As you sit here and argue, prophecy matches on.

Techutante

You continue to argue my point for me. There is no One interpretation of god, or how to worship god, or one right religion, because they are all made up and full of holes. You think I don’t know the differences between what people believe? I just told you that Catholicism was invented by the Romans to pacify the Jews and you think I give 2 shits about the inconstancy of the one that tried to brainwash me first, the very one I reference? Why do you think they call it Roman Catholicism? It’s not just cause the Vatican is in Rome. One of the early Roman Emperors decreed that everyone would worship on Sundays, and thus it was from then on.

I’m guessing from your specific brand of crazy that you are a 7th Day Adventist? Do you also keep the sabbath holy by doing no work, and stoning others that violate that rule by so much as picking up a broom? Do you trim the corners of your beard? Wear mixed fabrics? Enjoy your Saturday’s off?

What day we call any day of the week is pretty arbitrary, all things considered. What was the first sunday or monday? You want to talk about chicken and the egg, who declared the first marked day of the week? You’re going to trust some Gregorian monks when they were obviously not of your same religious sub-breed? It’s that important to “your god” that everyone have writing and calenders and can count to 7?

Incidentally, science already solved the chicken and the egg dilemma. If you follow any of the reasoning of evolution, the first egg was laid by another creature that was somewhat chicken-like, and was probably a dinosaur. Of course, your limited world view imagines that all dinosaurs were just hidden in the earth by Satan or something, since the earth couldn’t possibly be older than some desert nomads could imagine 2-3 thousand years ago.

To sub-quote you. “Whether you believe in Science or not, we will continue to discover the holes in all the metaphorical tables of elements. As you sit here and deny, science marches on.” The best part of about science is that you don’t have to believe in it, because it’s real.

Apparent Real

Several people believe in millions of gods. Are you going to say they’re wrong?

Innocent Ugwu

Techutante, one key point is that those scientists and non-scientists who do not believe in God ignore all the evidences that God has shown them about His existence. They ignore historical evidences, not just from fulfilled but still being fulfilled Bible prophecies, that are backed up by both circular sources as well as others.

And frankly, many of them are ignorant of all these sources of evidence because they’ve been taught by those who knew, some o f them, about the sources but ignored them, thus they made them not part of their curriculum.

That’s why God accused them thus Romans 1:21-31, ” because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

Read it and think about it.

Techutante

Yeah, I think about a little half bald 50 year old monk who hasn’t had sex in his entirely life, railing against all of the “sinners” who continued to enjoy living. “Inventors of evil things” = anyone who would challenge the power of the church. =p

Apparent Real

As usual, your stupid idiotic chrisitian supremacist viewpoint who thinks that all other religions are inferior. Get out of your Christian supremacist bigoted ideology, won’t ya? By saying all these things that indicate that you think that your religion is better than all else, you reveal yourself to be nothing more than a bigoted scumbag. Go die in a fire you bigot.

Innocent Ugwu

Haha, that’s what people say when they have no point. Yes, true christianity is the only true religion. Case in point: Only Jesus Christ claims to be the Son of God. No other religion has prophecies that have come to pass and is still being fulfilled like christianity.

Apparent Real

Even when you say “God”, do you mean the god in Islam? How about the ones in Hinduism? Or Buddhism? Are you going to ignore the evidence presented by those other religions? Of course you are. You are a bigot asshole who thinks your are all superior to everyone else.

Innocent Ugwu

As Islam is killing others and themselves in the name of religion, that’s the religion you want to claim as being superior?

Apparent Real

Question: Did you read the Islamic Quran? Or the Hindu texts? Exactly. You have no grounds to stand on for dismissing those other religions.

Innocent Ugwu

You don’t know if I have read them or not. So, your argument lacks fact.

RobGA

I believe in “those old guys” and their message, and I also have a scientific mind. Personally I have never seen a conflict between the two. The more science reveals, the more amazed I am at the complexity and ingenuity of all existence.

MrBear

I like your healthy rational approach Sir! Kudos!

Innocent Ugwu

What they don’t understand is that science is all about discovery.

Scientists discover what already exists, pure and simple.

How those things happened to exist so harmoniously as they do, they want to leave to chance. Sheer ignorance on their part.

Techutante

There you go, misusing ignorance again. You sound like Micheal Jackson.

Apparent Real

Do you believe in Islam too? How about Hinduism? Or Buddhism?

http://www.siblovia.com/ Alejunkie

Definitely Feel there is Good, Bad, Wrong & Evil Science. God/Religion is the ultimate checks and balances that helps assure the morality of the sciences. If anything, they should be working together in a common goal, One of my favorite historical figures is Msgr. Fr. Georges Lemaître.

MrBear

BuzzKillington here, did I ever tell you about the time I was amused by a certain historic figure of the name Gottfried Willhelm Leibniz, whose calculus notation system we still use today? Well let me start… :^)

Matt Menezes

I’m not so sure god, at least the one outlined in most religious texts (the only game in town unless you claim to talk to god directly), is moral at all. If you look at the old testament, god is pretty awful. Morality isn’t gleaned from god, we have our own inherent morality. If all our morals came from religious texts, we’d be homophobic, misogynistic, racist, petty beings. The fact that we can ignore the amoral bits of religious texts means we have an innate ability to judge things morally. Why bring god into morals if we do just fine without?

Also, science doesn’t claim morality. Instead, science builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions. It’s people who use science for good or bad.

http://www.siblovia.com/ Alejunkie

Yes, science (Used for Good or Evil by humans) is a logical method to understand/prove the elements and forces of the universe, but throughout history, sciences/religion have changed, been corrected & amended. Certainly not claiming to communicate to God directly and wrong to imply religion was the only resource for morality, but definitely still a good one. Doubt we’d be here today without the ten commandments or science. Until science is no longer controlled by humans (Moral or Not) it is not a perfect science. But should be careful that day could arrive. Humans are imaginative, brilliant, moral, evil & still fallible. Should we petty human beings be replaced because we have inherent morals?

Innocent Ugwu

You’ve not read the Old Testament, have you? There’s no smoke without fire, they say in my native language.

Go read why God did what he did that you now classify as evil or whatever. You cannot always tell the story about a movie you watched from the middle. They give you the background of movies to help you understand it when you watch it.

Of all that non-religious men often call evil about God, they ignored countless warnings that God gave before He acted. He warned them time and again, not once, not twice.

Look at the story of Egypt, He warned Pharaoh several times with miracles and so on before He hammered them with plaques upon plaques.

He warned the Israelites many times, told them in plain languages about the consequences of their action, yet they continued in their evil way till what happened happened to them.

Even today, that same God is warning the world of impending doom but only few is paying attention or listening. Now, when it happens, they’ll turn around and blame God for being so evil.

The point is that we did not create ourselves thus we owe our lives to God who made us, and that God is love. If man has followed the precepts He laid out for him, there won’t be all the evil we see today.

Just think about how transformed the world would be by just observing the ten commandments. There won’t be police, army, thieves, killers, liars, etc. Can you imaging how beautiful that will be?

What about no more diseases and death?

And that time is coming for God who’s in charge said so and has the power to make it happen.

Matt Menezes

So, first off, I have read the Old and New Testaments, but admittedly, I’ve not read them in their entirety cover to cover. I went to private, religious schools growing up, so I have been schooled in religion(s) – both protestant and Catholic. I’ve read the bits that school wanted me to read for assignments or what was being talked about in church. Later in life, as a teenager when I lost my religious beliefs, I read the parts that were often criticized by people for being the things I cited before. I’ve often wondered what percentage I’ve read, and I’ve vowed to myself to read it entirely as an adult to gain a better perspective. However, I always find something else to read, so it remains in my queue.

I’ll agree that the world would probably be a better place if people listened to the ten commandments – I think any reasonable, decent person would agree. The question becomes would people do a better job at adhering to those commandments with or without religion. We might never know because it seems like many people are hard-wired to believe in a higher power, and that’s fine.

As for disease and death, science has the clear advantage on those fronts. People who know they are being prayed for do worse than controls. Modern medicine and diets exist due to science and technology and have lead to a much longer lifespan and a much higher quality of life.

As for the stories of the bible, I’m not entirely convinced most even took place. The bible stole a lot of material from previous religious texts – the story of Jesus is almost exactly the same as stories from countless other religions way before he was supposedly born. A lot of the stories were exaggerated over time to create more of an impact, so it’s hard to say what actually transpired as it was written, what transpired but was exaggerated, and what was claimed to have transpire but never did in the first place.

Anyway, it seems like you are from an educated background and have been schooled in the ways of science/engineering. I suppose your faith in god and the dogma that surrounds god holds fast over your direct observation of the evidence put forth by science…

Innocent Ugwu

I’m sorry I didn’t get to reply till now, but it’s not late. I’m glad you admitted that you haven’t read the entire Bible. Many claim they’ve even though they haven’t, and those who have, just read it which is different from studying it. So, good job for being honest.

The Bible has numerous other historical books to back up its claim. These other sources were written by secular historians that have nothing to preach. They were just writing history as they saw it and behold, it corroborates the Bible. Have people read those other sources? Probably not.

If you read the book of Daniel, for instance, there are many secular historians that wrote things that tallied with it. People who read those historical books don’t doubt their authenticity, but they doubt the Bible.

With all that science and medicine have done, man can no longer live up to 130 years, and even after 70 years, most will prefer to die since they can no longer enjoy what they used to such as good food, sports, exercise, travel, sex, etc, but man lived hundreds of years before. Is that longer life?
If quality of life brought by science and medicine contribute to longer lifespan, why are we living shorter and shorter these days?

Astrophysicists and so on sit here and waste their and sometimes others money trying to see if there’s life on Mars, etc when the Bible tells us there isn’t. What will they find find? Nothing, and I can bet my life on that.

They sit here and argue that man has been around for millions of years when I can calculate from the Bible that man has been around for less than 7000 years. And you want me to not believe the existence of God? No way. That will be stupidity.

One popular saying is, “don’t trust the weather man”, for obvious reasons. With the most sophisticated computer and other equipment, man can’t predict the weather of next month with any good level of accuracy, but God told of events hundreds, and thousands of years before they happen and they did.

When Germany was been bombarded during world war 2, a man of God who read the Bible and understood it claimed that E and W Germany will reunite and lead Europe. People were laughing because Germany was being bombed mercilessly then. No one else made that claim.
Did that happen? You be the judge. This is a verifiable history. You can find the man’s writing about that and you can’t find anyone else saying the same thing at that time. How did he know that? It’s in the Bible.

Finally, of all the other religions, none of them has anything on prophecy for mankind. None of their leaders claimed to be the Son of God as Jesus did; none of their leaders claimed to be returning to rule the world, etc.

You know, astronomers are aiming at the distant galaxies and wondering what it’s like and all that. Here’s what I’m wondering; if I get to those distant galaxies, stand there and again aim the telescope as far as it can see, what will I see? And from whatever it sees, stand there and iterate this process billions and billions of time, where will it get me? Since beyond wherever you get, there’s still more out there, it’s endless, you know, This boggles my mind and I bow down before that Supreme Being, God, that made all these. And truly, His thoughts are not our thoughts, as He says.

Apparent Real

Have you read the holy books for the other religions too? Like Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Bahai, etc.? I bet you haven’t. Why are you so quick to dismiss other religions? Unless you were some kind of close-minded bigot, of course.

Apparent Real

Also, for that matter, I think Shinto is much closer to the truth than your stupid Christianity.

Apparent Real

Also, have you heard of anything called “Christian Privilege”? Thinking you’re so superior to everyone else with your Christian supremacist racist ideology and further the Christian hegemony, you do nothing but further the exploitation of other people who believe in different religions.

Innocent Ugwu

Who told you I’m Catholic? I know I didn’t say that, and I’m not. But let’s assume I’m one. Can someone change after realizing they made a mistake and then walk straight?

The Catholic Church committed a lot of atrocities because they abandoned the word of God and adopted the words of men, just as the Israelites did before God sent them into captivity.

But the truth remains the truth regardless of who says it. If the Catholic says that killing, for instance, is a crime and a sin, will you say it’s not because of the catholic past?
Why do you bash them because they say that homosexuality and abortion is a sin? They’re merely quoting the Bible, pure and simple.

You can take it or leave it, but choices have consequences.
Like I always ask people, if you jump off a ten story building with no flotation device claiming you don’t believe Gravity exists, do you think it’s gonna change the existence and impact of gravity by the time you hit the ground?

ABC

Sorry for my previous 4 comments. I initially read your comments with the assumption that you were expressing your views and then realized you were not. I do have to admit that I do get unreasonably angry when I perceive injustice in this world.

The thing is, “quoting the Bible” by itself is no defense for anything. People did that in the past to justify all kinds of things, from slavery to racial discrimination. And now they are doing it again, with different issues this time, but again, they are doing bad things. They could possibly be doing good things, but they choose to do many bad things too.

And when someone does something bad or evil, it is only natural to rally against them.

That is why the Catholic Church and any other religious groups, like Muslims, Protestants, etc., must be condemned when they commit such actions.

Apparent Real

And gay-lynching. Undeniably, Christianity worked to further that. If you had you way, gays would be stoned. Shows that you are nothing more than a homophobic bigot.

Innocent Ugwu

You’re playing a script written by someone you know not about his existence by using those words that you cannot defend.

You can make your choice but the consequence of your choice, you’ve no control over.

Like I always ask people, if you jump off a ten story building with no flotation device claiming you don’t believe Gravity exists, do you think it’s gonna change the existence and impact of gravity by the time you hit the ground?
Think about it!

Andrew

I love how your name is Innocent, as if that somehow absolves you of your ‘stupid’ comments.

Matt Menezes

Why are you on a tech/science website?

Innocent Ugwu

Because I probably understand both better than you.

Folatt

Or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Innocent Ugwu

Like I always ask people, if you jump off a ten story building with no flotation device claiming you don’t believe Gravity exists, do you think it’s gonna change the existence and impact of gravity by the time you hit the ground?
Your belief or not about God is not going to alter His course, and it’s not going to absolve you of the immense punishment that’s about to fall on mankind either.

There’s a true God, and His way is the only way. I understand that mainstream Christians have gone and continue to go off course but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist. In due course, they’ll be corrected and Ted correction will not be pleasant.

Think about it!

Dozerman

You just had to, didn’t you?

Neutrino .

Obvious troll is obvious.

MillieNeon

Scientists also refuse to acknowledge unicorns, the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus. That’s how stupid they are.

Guillaume Drolet

what a troll.. there goes another Science Vs Religion fight u.u

craig calkins

Makes me think it’s an old galaxy that had been eaten up by the super massive black hole, it’s mass increasing as well as size, as time went on

Scott Revak

“The black hole at the center of
the Milky Way has a mass of around four million Suns, or about 0.01% of
the galaxy’s entire mass. The M60-UCD1 black hole has the mass of 21
million Suns, or about 15% of the galaxy’s total mass. ” So what % is 4.5 BILLION suns????

“Big Jim has vaporized stars throughout the universe, and the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln!”

MadCityObserver

One reason it’s referred to a hole is because using the mathematics of general relativity whenever you attempt to plot the “fabric” of space time in the vicinity of such an object at a certain distance (called the event horizon) from the “center” of the object the formulae you’re using break down and you cannot continue to plot. What prevents you from continuing is that from the viewpoint of an observer outside of the black hole at the event horizon time comes to a standstill. You’re graph will be incomplete; it will contain a void.
Also, it’s much more than a super dense ball of matter. Technically speaking you cannot take a particular cubic centimeter of the object and assign to it a non-infinite density.

Neutrino .

In a black hole there will be a boundary between the event horizon and the singularity beyond which matter cannot exist (the particles from which matter is made having been shredded to more fundamental types), and at the singularity itself space and time itself will also (in theory at least) have ceased to exist.

So it’s not quite the same as just squashed up matter, which is primarily why it’s as fascinating as it is.

Mae Holland

The undercurrent of this suggests that the universe may have started from a massive black hole as the singularity. This argues for an eternally regenerating universe as opposed to the universe as a one-time phenomenon. Is it possible that at a large enough mass, a black hole becomes unstable and blows up?

This is an exciting bit of research! I’m glad that there are people out there doing this kind of work.

Bob Haze

Yeah…but what if we find out someday they just made all this up? What if the Hubble Telescope Building is an empty shell?

MrBear

Well, they built the Hubble building up where the air is pretty thin.. You should really tour it, someday! ;^)

I’m referring to the other word, black, you ignorant fuck. Don’t capitalize the word WHITE and not expect a response either.

Donald Schuster

Easy there Lil Trayvon….

Andrew

it’s Obama’s fault though! or at least that’s the gist I got because almost every comment you write is about Obama or being ignorant/racist. Go fuck a goat, it’ll give you more pleasure than being a troll

Donald Schuster

Poor thing, time for your meds dear….

MrBear

the sucking sound of billions and billions of dollars disappearing for 40 years…

Bhokara

“Frickin'” — is that a technical scientific term?

Bob Haze

In intimate scientific circles, it means 10 to the fiftieth power Kilograms per Meter cubed. But it’s easier to call it “frickin'”.

sixassedmonkey

What does “500 times smaller” mean? With respect to what? I presume the writer means 1/500th (or 0.2%) the size of the Milky Way. Why not write that rather than gut the English language?

When you say, it’s X times larger, it’s with respect to the magnitude of the original object (for example, from 0 stars to 1 billion stars is… 1 billion stars, so the other object would be X billion stars). However, when you say something is X times smaller, what is the value/origin that you’re comparing it to?

My apologies for the rant. I am just tired of science writers propagating this horrible misuse of language and math.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian Anthony

Yep, I mean ‘one-five-hundredth the size’ — but that looks and sounds horrible, so I went with ‘500 times smaller’ instead.

Language is a mutable, moldable thing, sir!

sixassedmonkey

Good on you for replying, Sebastian. Thank you. I can appreciate your desire for better cadence. It’s not as bad as hearing physicists use it.

Regardless of my rant on that one phrase, thanks for the story and thanks for writing about science.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian Anthony

Yeah, covering science is always interesting. On the one hand, you feel kind of beholden to all of the strict RULES of science — but on the other hand, you want to break down as many barriers as possible, so that more people can understand/appreciate it.

If I was writing on a science blog, it would be different — but I’m writing on ET, so I try be as approachable and easy-to-read as possible.

MrBear

you are RIGHT! Numeracy has been subjugated for too long by Literacy, its time for the numbers to rise up and … what s da woid im lokin for here??

kroozin

“be counted!” I believe is what yer lookin fer.

Neutrino .

Quite. Something only one times smaller than itself is already nothing, so something 500 times smaller would be as big as -499 of the original, which doesn’t make any sense at all.

Pickybugger

You mean 0.002% the size of our galaxy?
The unit ‘1’ of the equation 1/500th refers to 100% of the size of the smaller galaxy, and so the ‘500’ in the equation is in fact 50,000% of the size of the smaller galaxy but represents the single (1) whole (100%) size of our galaxy. Therefore 1/500 = 0.002 as does 100(%)/50,000(%) = 0.002% of our 1 whole galaxy.

vfxant

If M60-UCD1’s black hole, with a mass of 21 million stars, is considered a supermassive black hole, then what superlative does one give M60’s 4.5 billion mass one? A superfragilisticexpialidociousmassive black hole?

Jeff Vahrenkamp

Ever since hearing Sebastian talk in one of the videos, I’ve been trying to read his articles with a British accent in my head… It was pretty fun for this one, though I couldn’t decide how “freaking black hole” would sound in a british accent as they never said that on monte python.

“I’m not entirely sure what happens when two supermassive black holes merge, nor what such a monstrosity would be called…”

The next episode of The Jerry Springer Show.

Oh wait, you meant black HOLES…

ronch

If we can’t see the galaxy very well (as the article mentions, hence the artist’s rendering), how sure are we that it’s driven by such a huge black hole? Is it spinning too quickly? Is it the size of the galaxy? Sorry, I think there are some things left out.

greg f.

Good place for terrorist types

Joel Detrow

Top image credit: Space Engine. It’s good stuff, go play around with it. Really gives you a sense of the scale of the universe.

Hung Mai

That Black Hole is puny, compare to what inside Spain’s accounting book.

Mr Moo

One thing i don’t get is if space is expanding (which is it) and as Hubble discovered, all the galaxies are moving away from each other, how do they collide? I read somewhere that its pretty much certain that Andromeda will collide with the milky way at some point in the future (billions of years from now) but Hubble discovered that all the galaxies are red shifted when looking at them through a telescope, indicating that they are all moving away from us, hence space is expanding. If Andromeda is on a collision course with the milky way, shouldn’t it be blue shifted, indicating that its coming towards us?

Brandon Gorman

Science is merely theories discovered over and improves it by discoveries….. Science is proven wrong EVERY DAY!!! God/ Christianity is the answer. If you would STUDY the bible you would find all the answer your looking for in life. The big bang theory is… pointless. It has literally no evidence, but yet we have found gods signs throughout history! Science is all questions……….. and LITTLE answers….

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